The field of the invention relates generally to data compression, and more particularly, to data compression for images.
Image data compression techniques are typically used to reduce the storage requirements for image data bases, reduce the bandwidth required to transmit images, or to facilitate image analysis. Conventional image compression techniques include bit string encoding schemes, including linear predicitive coding or vector quantization algorithms, spatial filters including low-pass filter gradient filtering and median filtering, or temporal processing schemes including change detection algorithms. None of these conventional image data compression techniques simultaneously possesses the following characteristics: (1) they do not implement relatively simple processing for image compression, (2) they do not provide for highly compressed image representations that can be easily de-compressed into good fidelity images, and (3) they do not use a format that provides for automated image analysis.